The Spring/Summer SSWUG Virtual Conference for 2019 will bring a new look at where things are, what's happening in the data-oriented world we all work in and where things may be going. We'll be approaching a good number of sessions differently, focusing on discussions with key industry experts to get their views and suggestions for what's next and how to navigate the changes, opportunities, and responsibilities before us.

Sessions will be covering security, data management, and ethics, trends in the industry and how-to sessions. Look for experts that range from career management experts to in-the-trenches security, IoT and DBA professionals.

This event is free for all to attend, free for all to exhibit.

SSWUG.ORG is building community events that bring excellent content, food for thought and real-world information to the data-oriented professional. We hope you'll join us.

SESSIONS

All times are Eastern TimePrintable Schedule || Times, presenters and sessions are subject to change.

Data Ethics, Protection and Privacy

StephenWynkoop

Stephen Wynkoop

Stephen Wynkoop is the founder and editor for SSWUG.ORG – the SQL Server Worldwide User’s Group where he writes a daily column and maintains the site overall. SSWUG features a weekly video program about the database and IT world, webcasts, articles, quarterly online virtual community events and vConferences several times a year. Stephen is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and the author of more than 10 books, translated into at least 7 languages. Stephen has been working with SQL Server since the very first version, with a prior experience in database platforms that included dBase and Btrieve.

With evolving laws, guidelines and expectations, the ethics surrounding information and data are being actively reshaped and tuned. Find out about changes, coming changes and important areas to watch as you build out your plans for managing your data sets from "womb to tomb."

Key Career Management Objectives and Tricks

LauraRose

Laura Rose

Laura Lee Rose has been in the software and testing industry for over 20 years. She’s worked with such companies as IBM, Ericsson, Staples, Fidelity Investments and Sogeti in various client advocacy and project management roles. The techniques she used in her business coaching and client advocacy work saved these companies both time and money, which resulted in on-time, quality product delivery with higher client satisfaction.

Even though Laura excelled in the corporate environment, she felt a calling toward something more. Laura now uses her time management, work life balance and personal development skills as a life coach and Corporate Exit Strategist. Laura Lee Rose helps people blend their goals and dreams into their everyday lives. Laura uses creative transition strategies to help her clients realize what really matters to them. Combining inspired action with practical, tangible techniques easily lead you toward more autonomy, freedom and balance.

If you are ready for your next chapter, learn more about Laura and her products at www.LauraLeeRose.com

Stephen Wynkoop

Stephen Wynkoop is the founder and editor for SSWUG.ORG – the SQL Server Worldwide User’s Group where he writes a daily column and maintains the site overall. SSWUG features a weekly video program about the database and IT world, webcasts, articles, quarterly online virtual community events and vConferences several times a year. Stephen is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and the author of more than 10 books, translated into at least 7 languages. Stephen has been working with SQL Server since the very first version, with a prior experience in database platforms that included dBase and Btrieve.

Stephen and Laura will be talking through the different approaches to managing a career as an IT Professional. They'll be looking at different ways of keeping up on the different technologies you embrace, and the importance of doing just that. Different approaches, objectives, and techniques for managing your career in the gig economy and even with career paths within a specific company will be discussed.

Staying Valuable in a Rapidly Changing Employment Environment

LauraRose

Laura Rose

Laura Lee Rose has been in the software and testing industry for over 20 years. She’s worked with such companies as IBM, Ericsson, Staples, Fidelity Investments and Sogeti in various client advocacy and project management roles. The techniques she used in her business coaching and client advocacy work saved these companies both time and money, which resulted in on-time, quality product delivery with higher client satisfaction.

Even though Laura excelled in the corporate environment, she felt a calling toward something more. Laura now uses her time management, work life balance and personal development skills as a life coach and Corporate Exit Strategist. Laura Lee Rose helps people blend their goals and dreams into their everyday lives. Laura uses creative transition strategies to help her clients realize what really matters to them. Combining inspired action with practical, tangible techniques easily lead you toward more autonomy, freedom and balance.

If you are ready for your next chapter, learn more about Laura and her products at www.LauraLeeRose.com

Regardless of what industry you are interested in, the way people communicate, shop, interact, network have all changed.
Most fields have undergone automation in how they sell, how they manufacture, how they manage, how they communicate, how they travel, how they advertise, how they handle customer support and how they conduct their daily business.

The common denominator in all environments is Technology.

As much as technology has changed our personal lives, it’s forcing even more radical shifts in the workplace.

So - how do you thrive in this changing work environment?

Technological advances have always led to job loss in the short term but economic booms in the long term. It may be unsettling. But one thing is clear: To stay competitive in the evolving economy, you must prepare yourself for a workplace that looks very different from the one to which you’ve grown accustomed.

This presentation is specifically for individuals who want to get ahead by staying valuable and even thrive in a rapidly changing work environment.

Security in the Real-World - What to Know When It All Hits the Fan

DuncanMcAlynn

Duncan McAlynn

Stephen Wynkoop

Stephen Wynkoop is the founder and editor for SSWUG.ORG – the SQL Server Worldwide User’s Group where he writes a daily column and maintains the site overall. SSWUG features a weekly video program about the database and IT world, webcasts, articles, quarterly online virtual community events and vConferences several times a year. Stephen is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and the author of more than 10 books, translated into at least 7 languages. Stephen has been working with SQL Server since the very first version, with a prior experience in database platforms that included dBase and Btrieve.

In this session, Stephen and Duncan will be discussing things that are happening with data privacy and security response challenges being faced by all data professionals today. We'll look at real-world examples of both what has been done, and what needs to be done. The implications of getting it right, and those of missing the call to update tools and approaches used. Duncan's extensive experience working with companies to shore up their security systems provides guidance and sometimes stark reminders about what needs to be front-of-mind when it comes to managing systems.

DB2 Developer's Guide Comes Alive!

CraigMullins

Craig Mullins

Craig S. Mullins is a data management strategist, researcher, and consultant. Craig is working with Datavail and its DB2 practice to expand offerings and client base. He is President and Principal Consultant at Mullins Consulting, Inc. and the publisher of The Database Site (www.thedatabasesite.com). He has three decades of experience in all facets of database management and has worked with DB2 on the mainframe since V1. Craig has been appointed by IBM as an Information Champion and he has experience with multiple other database systems including Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase. Craig is the author of two books – “DB2 Developer's Guide” currently in its 6th edition and “Database Administration: The Complete Guide to DBA Practices and Procedures,” the industry’s only guide to heterogeneous DBA. Craig also is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has spoken to thousands of technicians at conferences across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. You also may have read some of Craig’s industry articles in his blogs and popular journals such as DM Review, DB2 Magazine, SSWUG, Enterprise Tech Journal and others.

Tips, techniques, and guidelines for best practices in the development of DB2 databases and applications.

The Cloud Is Coming!

CraigMullins

Craig Mullins

Craig S. Mullins is a data management strategist, researcher, and consultant. Craig is working with Datavail and its DB2 practice to expand offerings and client base. He is President and Principal Consultant at Mullins Consulting, Inc. and the publisher of The Database Site (www.thedatabasesite.com). He has three decades of experience in all facets of database management and has worked with DB2 on the mainframe since V1. Craig has been appointed by IBM as an Information Champion and he has experience with multiple other database systems including Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase. Craig is the author of two books – “DB2 Developer's Guide” currently in its 6th edition and “Database Administration: The Complete Guide to DBA Practices and Procedures,” the industry’s only guide to heterogeneous DBA. Craig also is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has spoken to thousands of technicians at conferences across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. You also may have read some of Craig’s industry articles in his blogs and popular journals such as DM Review, DB2 Magazine, SSWUG, Enterprise Tech Journal and others.

Craig Mullins and Stephen will be discussing the impact on DBAs and professionals that the cloud has brought - from management to best practices to job security. They'll be talking about some of the pros and cons to consider and the experiences some have been through in rushing to the cloud without taking the time to understand the right approaches and right things that drive choices. Craig and Stephen will also talk about the proliferation of devices, data collection and other things that drive DBAs forward and influence choices and direction.

3 Performance Tuning Tricks for an Efficient Database Expert

PinalDave

Pinal Dave

Pinal Dave is a technology enthusiast and independent consultant with over thirteen years of experience in the information technology sector. He has successfully authored 11 SQL Server database books, 18 Pluralsight courses and written over 3200 articles on database technology via his blog http://blog.sqlauthority.com. Rounding out his professional career, Pinal has held key positions as Sr. Consultant for SolidQ and as a Technology Evangelist for Pluralist and Microsoft. Pinal holds a Master of Science from the University of Southern California, and numerous professional certifications, including MCTS, MCDBA and MCAD (.NET).

No one wants the slow performance of their application. In this session, we will learn about three performance tuning tricks which DBA must know to improve their SQL Server’s performance. We will understand what are those tricks, and how efficiently we can use it in just 60 minutes. We will explore various settings as well as code which will kill SQL Server Performance. At the end of this session, every attendee will receive scripts which will help them improve their SQL Server’s performance. This session is of intermediate level – you just have to know a little bit about SQL Server and a lot more you will learn in this session. The session is carefully crafted from the real world experience for DBA so they can learn tricks which can help them to improve their server’s performance.

Thinking Like an Attacker

K. Brian Kelley

Brian Kelley is an author, columnist, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), accredited CISA trainer, and former Microsoft Data Platform (SQL Server) MVP (2009-2016) focusing primarily on SQL Server and Windows security. Brian currently serves as a data architect as well as an independent infrastructure/security architect concentrating on Active Directory, SQL Server, and Windows Server. He has served in a myriad of other positions including senior database administrator, data warehouse architect, web developer, incident response team lead, and project manager. Brian has spoken at 24 Hours of PASS, IT/Dev Connections, SQLConnections, the SSWUG Virtual Conferences, the Techno Security and Forensics Investigation Conference, the IT GRC Forum, SyntaxCon, and at various SQL Saturdays, Code Camps, and user groups.

Stephen Wynkoop

Stephen Wynkoop is the founder and editor for SSWUG.ORG – the SQL Server Worldwide User’s Group where he writes a daily column and maintains the site overall. SSWUG features a weekly video program about the database and IT world, webcasts, articles, quarterly online virtual community events and vConferences several times a year. Stephen is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and the author of more than 10 books, translated into at least 7 languages. Stephen has been working with SQL Server since the very first version, with a prior experience in database platforms that included dBase and Btrieve.

In this discussion, Brian and Stephen will talk about the attacker and the attacker’s viewpoint. If we only look at systems from a traditional defender’s point-of-view, we’ll miss key points of weakness which a savvy adversary will take advantage of. They’ll talk about threat modeling, how to leverage this to look at our defensive countermeasures, and what to do about the vulnerabilities that threat modeling reveals.

Auditing and Detecting Illicit Activity in SQL Server

K. Brian Kelley

Brian Kelley is an author, columnist, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), accredited CISA trainer, and former Microsoft Data Platform (SQL Server) MVP (2009-2016) focusing primarily on SQL Server and Windows security. Brian currently serves as a data architect as well as an independent infrastructure/security architect concentrating on Active Directory, SQL Server, and Windows Server. He has served in a myriad of other positions including senior database administrator, data warehouse architect, web developer, incident response team lead, and project manager. Brian has spoken at 24 Hours of PASS, IT/Dev Connections, SQLConnections, the SSWUG Virtual Conferences, the Techno Security and Forensics Investigation Conference, the IT GRC Forum, SyntaxCon, and at various SQL Saturdays, Code Camps, and user groups.

While meeting compliance requirements is important, simply matching the standard doesn’t guarantee that your data is safe. Smart attackers craft methods that bypass traditional security hardening recommendations. Many of these methods target the weakest link in security, people, via social engineering. Therefore, we must look at the kind of activity that is happening on our databases and try to spot when access deviates from the typical pattern.
In this session, we’ll look at what SQL Server gives on on the auditing side, focused mainly around Extended Events. We’ll consider how to best use Extended Events to monitor what’s important so we can try to reduce the noise before having to sift through the events collected. Then we’ll look at what systems outside of SQL Server can do for us in order to help us find breaks in our users’ and systems’ patterns.

Data Protection Planning and Execution

PatrickTownsend

Patrick Townsend

Patrick Townsend has been in the data security industry for more than 25 years and brings both a deep well of knowledge and a unique perspective to the subject. He founded Townsend Security, a company that specializes in data encryption, key management, and managed file transfer solutions. Patrick is an award winning speaker and regularly presents on data security topics. He contributes to standards development at organizations like OASIS and PCI SSC.

Stephen Wynkoop

Stephen Wynkoop is the founder and editor for SSWUG.ORG – the SQL Server Worldwide User’s Group where he writes a daily column and maintains the site overall. SSWUG features a weekly video program about the database and IT world, webcasts, articles, quarterly online virtual community events and vConferences several times a year. Stephen is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and the author of more than 10 books, translated into at least 7 languages. Stephen has been working with SQL Server since the very first version, with a prior experience in database platforms that included dBase and Btrieve.

Managing the protection of your data at rest, in-transit and all of the facets of managing that is a critical piece of your data infrastructure. Stephen and Patrick will be talking through the evolution of key management, best practices, key objectives and things to watch out for as you consider your data protection objectives and chosen tools.

Sponsors

KEYNOTE Sponsors

SQL Server MVP Stephen Wynkoop founded SSWUG.ORG in 1999 as one of the first cross-platform sites to cover enterprise technologies. Since then, the site has gone from being a part-time hobby to a reputable content provider with thousands of articles and video-based training sessions.

SSWUG.org is the one of the largest community-driven sites that focuses on enterprise technology, as more than 570,000 members regularly visit our site for answers to their IT-related questions and to access the information they need to grow as professionals.

SSWUG.org has a lot to offer: articles, classes, videos, and so much more. We consider ourselves a good education resources, and we’re always looking for new speakers, writers, and others to contribute to the already incredible content we have.

PREMIER Sponsors

Even though Laura excelled in the corporate environment, she aspired toward something more. Laura now uses her time management, work life balance and personal development skills as a business and life coach. Laura helps people blend their goals and dreams into their everyday lives. Laura uses creative strategies to help her clients realize what really matters to them. Combining inspired action with practical, tangible techniques, she leads clients toward more autonomy, freedom and balance.